Mei Feng, director of "No Problem": Literary adaptations of films are not just technical work

Original title: Literary adaptation of a film is not just a technical activity-Interview with Mei Feng, director of "No Problem" Editor's

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Recently, a movie "No Problem" adapted from Lao She's novel of the same name,"No Problem", is on a hit at the box office and the response is good. This old film of the Republic of China, which seems to have emerged from the white fog, was described by the leading actor Fan Wei: "This is a film that is extremely easy to ignore because it is shot very lightly and acted very lightly." And many netizens commented: "This movie captures the lining and face of Lao She's works."

Last year, in addition to winning the Golden Horse Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the Tokyo Film Festival Award, the film "No Problem" also sent the male lead Fan Wei to the best actor position at the Taiwan Golden Horse Award. As a director who was born as a screenwriter, Mei Feng has a profound and unique understanding of screenwriting and adapted texts.

No matter what era, audiences will not like works without aesthetic qualities.

Reporter: In recent years,"The Problem That Is Not a Problem" seems quite different. For the current China film market, what problems do you think the adaptation of classic texts faces?

A: The basic market for adaptation is still a digestive adaptation of contemporary literary works or popular literature. Adapting classic literature will take some risks, because classic literature is not popular literature after all, which will lose communication with a wider audience. This is also today's reality, unlike literary adaptations in the 1980s that were done within the system and category of serious literature. After the marketization or division of the film market after 2000, literary adaptations are basically adaptations of popular literature. Adapting IP adaptations or works with large popular readings has a goal motivation, which is to maximize commercial benefits. The word literature may have to be put back, and what is put first is popularity and popularity.

Reporter: You once mentioned that the value of adapted materials is based on self-aesthetic qualities and the possibility of a successful commercial brand. In your opinion, how can we achieve a balance between the two?

A: The film market is now pursuing the characteristics of maximizing commercial benefits one side by side, making it difficult to strike a balance between the two. Under the premise of commercial interests, whether a screenwriter can pursue himself depends on whether the creator himself has this enthusiasm.

Of course, establishing and trying to communicate and communicate in a good story is the basic motivation. How to use the story to convince people, whether the story itself is worth letting people follow it for two hours, immerse it in it, and feel the certain emotions and values you want to express. The transmission of values depends on whether the creator has this ability. No matter what era, audiences will not like pure soap operas and works without any aesthetic qualities. For creators, it depends on whether they have the professional qualities to produce works that will be recognized by the audience.

There is a cruel fact about the movie: it only has auditory and visual

reporters: how to be loyal to the original work and have a sense of propriety for your own creation?

A: Fiction narrative literature has an advantage that literature has no sensory boundaries. In literature, all sensory experiences can be amplified by words in a way that captures details. However, there is a cruel truth about movies: it only has sound and sight. For us, the problem arises: you cannot have psychological descriptions, you cannot have blank descriptions, and you cannot intervene emotionally. When adapting a work, a literary system is adapted into an audio-visual system, so what should be abandoned must be abandoned. With the advantage of the film as a medium, what should be enlarged must be enlarged. This is done in the process of writing from childhood to script.

So, how to do it well? It is still necessary to conform to the feeling of the movie, that is, to conform to our material reality experience as much as possible. Novels can be very exaggerated, deformed, allegorical, and caricature, but all these vocabulary in movies may encounter challenges. It is difficult for us to transform the advantages of literature and novels into the audio-visual language of movies from the reality of a material perspective.

Therefore, in the process of revision, the facts that the novel can be used and are in line with the film feel are left behind, and all the literary parts are thrown away. When you find that something that conforms to the cinematic sense is not full of material and flesh for a movie, you should add new things. This is what I think is the most important step from childhood to film adaptation. It is how to adapt the novel to the characteristics of film narrative, review and practice it, or let it be transformed into something that conforms to the new theme.

Reporter: As both director and screenwriter, when selecting scripts, do you prefer to choose texts that are consistent with the film narrative?

A: Not really. It mainly depends on the skeleton of its narrative, whether the story itself is interesting, and whether the amount of information contained in the story itself is interesting enough to do it. I think the intention of literary adaptations in the 1980s is very clear in this regard. Works such as "Judou","Hanging the Red Lantern High" and "Red Sorghum" are still very convincing.

In the 1980s, China films, as an aesthetics that emerged suddenly and a phenomenon that attracted world attention, were related to the uniqueness and depth of thought of literary adaptation choices. The problem today is that many people can write novels using a cinematic, perspective, and montage narrative, but I always feel that such writing itself is considering more popularity and circulation, not the law of writing itself.

There are self-discipline and word-of-mouth reporters in the industry

: Regarding the movies and TV series adapted in the past year or two, readers will have a question: Why are so many original works adapted from movies involving plagiarism? How do directors view this plagiarism when selecting scripts?

A: Plagiarism can be solved by legal means, and the author who has been plagiarized can go through legal litigation to find an explanation. But I don't think there is any problem with today's China films that can be said in general terms. Because the unity of capital and interests may not cover the situation of all people in this industry, I think there are still multiple possibilities. Without this diversity possibility, it would be difficult for us to imagine Wanma Caidan's "Tallo", as well as works like "Roadside Picnic" and "August".

I think that in the past two or three years, China films have still been seen by people. Even if they are kidnapped by market capital, there are still people making something they want to do. The works of these people are basically nothing to do with large commercial works. They searched for possibilities in their small, narrow and cramped space, but after making them, they found that capital was also added. Capital is like a beast with a good sense of smell, and it immediately follows after seeing their success. With this popularity, capital is waiting in line for you.

Reporter: But for the original author who is plagiarized, the more additional commercial capital and the more interest parties, the more difficult it will be to prove plagiarism. The current situation of plagiarism in adaptations of movies and TV series actually provides a pass for plagiarism.

A: I think the industry has self-discipline and reputation. Everyone knows that the truth cannot be concealed. If you really complete a work in very bad conditions, such as casually copying other people's labor, and other people's things will be used so calmly and indiscriminately, this is definitely not a long-term solution.

Returning to the capital market just mentioned, in the reality of buying and selling, such teams generally won't go far, and they will be punished by certain rules. You can copy it once, and you can copy it once, but if it is plagiarism, it has nothing to do with ability, knowledge, and the most important qualities that the film industry should have. However, no matter how much any industry is kidnapped by money capital, there is still a rule, and we must recognize this rule.

Reporter: Can you recommend three adaptations of movies that you like?

A: I still like "Raise the Red Lantern High", which is an important work in the literary adaptations of movies;"Lin's Shop", which is a movie that I particularly like; and Xie Jin's "Furong Town", which is very impressive. This is a representative work of three generations of directors in three periods. In the 1980s, literature still gave movies a lot of nutrition and resources. At that time, works such as "October" and "Harvest", as well as books published by People's Literature Publishing House, quickly turned into movies. Today is more complex and diverse.

Editor: Mary